38. Bray

Chapter thirty-eight

Bray

I throw myself over the bridge; I see where he hits the water, and then just like that, I’m in the icy water. Everything happens so quickly. I remember seeing Erin and hearing her scream. The water shocks my body so much that, for a moment, my brain is completely white. All I can feel is the icy cold as it surrounds my body, and then I remember him.

I kick my legs and break the surface, looking around.

“brAY! OVER THERE!”

I glance up and spot Erin at the bridge. She points to the left. I swim as fast as I can to the spot and dive, searching for him. But I can’t feel anything. I can’t see anything. Pain lances through my body, but I keep moving.

After four dives, I look up. Desperate for help.

“Erin!” I shout.

“I can’t see! Oh, god! I can’t see!” she shouts back. I can barely make out her form running across the top of the bridge.

I hear a splash and look up to see Shane wading into the water. And then Finn is there. I’m so relieved I almost start crying.

“Help me!” I rasp out.

I hear more splashes and whip my head around, watching all the people who live in this town rush down the hill. Some run straight into the water.

I walk to a shallower section, searching more, using my feet and legs to feel. My teeth are chattering, and before long, I’m physically dragged from the river and wrapped in a blanket.

I stand on the bank while people hold me, as they pour warm drinks into me and rub me down with towels. But I can’t take my eyes from the icy depths or the people churning up the water.

I’m too cold to cry. I’m in too much pain to feel anything. Inside, the agony is too intense. It takes up everything. Is he dead? Why did he do that? Why wasn’t I faster?

“Locke,” I whisper.

Erin arrives beside me and takes my icy hand in hers. She’s crying.

“He’s alive. He’s alive. I can feel it.” She repeats over and over until I want to yell at her.

“It’s been an hour, Erin. He’s gone,” Alma says.

“An hour?” I ask in a daze. No, it’s just been a few minutes. It can’t have been an hour.

“Yes,” Alma murmurs. “You brave boy! That was one of the finest and most foolish things I’ve ever seen.”

I swallow hard because it didn’t make a difference. I still lost him.

Where is he?

“He’s got to be dead,” I hear someone mutter. “We can’t stay out here all night. We need to get people dry and warm.”

I shake my head and stand up, but I feel strange and weak. I stumble and go down on one knee. The words people whisper around me break the control I have. My heart cracks, and the grief I hide escapes. I open my mouth and pour everything into one cry.

“LOCKE!” I howl. My voice echoes around and deep into the night.

Everybody stills. The people of Twin Rivers fall silent, witnesses to my grief, to my pain.

I keep calling. I keep screaming. The night and it’s chilling cold and the silence. The damn silence. Where is my omega? Only the wind howls. But it can’t silence my cries.

Over and over, I howl his name. Calling him. Calling my omega. Demanding a response.

And there is nothing. I’m sobbing for air, on my knees, with Erin draped against my side, and still, there is no answer.

“LOCKE!” I scream until my throat aches, until I almost pass out.

Shane has staggered over to us and has fallen to his knees beside me, his face pressed into my legs, and Finn stands in a ball of yellow light, his face fierce, watching.

I stare at him, trying to convey what I need. He gets me, he should know what I want.

He looks at me, and he nods. He opens his mouth and takes up the call where I’ve left off. “LOCKE!”

“LOCKE!” I echo.

Erin gets to her feet and goes to the water’s edge. “I can feel him.”

Shane explodes upwards. He cups his hands to his mouth. “LOCKE!”

I focus on Erin and get to my feet, trailing after her. In the dark, Finn wades back into the water, his face white in the spotlights. People explode into action, racing up and down the banks, dragging poles through the water.

Erin walks along the river’s edge like a bloodhound. I reach out and grab Shane’s hand and drag him with me. His fingers are as cold as mine. But he moves with me. I keep an eye on Finn as we move closer to the water.

Erin gets more and more agitated. Her head shifts back and forth, and then she turns and walks downstream.

She ignores everyone, refusing people’s condolences, refusing their sympathies. Her face is cold and hard. She is hunting.

I follow after her, staying right on her heels. We walk for a long time. I can no longer see the town, and only a handful of people are still with us, their torches scanning the river and banks.

“Do you hear that?” Shane asks suddenly.

I cock my head and listen hard, desperate to hear the sound. It’s almost inaudible, but I hear it less in my brain and more in my heart.

“Omega purr,” I whisper and lunge past her, jogging along the river bank. Where? Where is he?

I follow the sound until I see him lying broken on the bank of the river. He’s crawled out of the water. He’s alive.

He’s alive. His song cuts off with a cough. It doesn’t matter, I’ve found him.

“Locke! Oh, fuck, oh, shit. HELP!” I scream.

Shane and Finn appear beside me with blankets. We bundle him up, and I carefully lift him into Shane’s arms.

“I can’t run,” I admit reluctantly.

“I’ve got it. I’ve got him,” Shane promises.

I step back, letting my hands slide from him. Erin grabs Locke’s head, whispers in his ear, and then steps back. I watch as she swipes an angry tear away.

“Erin?”

She shakes her head as people turn and head back, lighting the way for Shane, Finn, and Locke.

I go to follow them but pause when I see Erin. She turned away and wandered a half a dozen feet further down river. She’s looking at something not far away. I walk up to her and follow her gaze.

Delilah is lying there, her eyes wide. She mouths ‘help me’, but Erin just stares at her.

“Erin?”

“Go away, Bray. You don’t want to see this.” Erin’s voice is colder than I’ve ever heard it.

“Erin,” I whisper.

She looks up at me. “Leave, Brayson.”

When I don’t move, she sways slightly. “I drowned Dezzi’s office when he cheated on me. Destroyed his car. I paid to have his house trashed. I have a dark side to me, Brayson. A very dark side. I don’t want you to see this part of me.”

“Erin, I love all of you, dark or otherwise.” I reach and wrap my hand around hers.

“Everyone knew it was me. My boss called me into his office, and he looked at me and asked me two questions. He asked how far are you going to go, Erin? What are you prepared to do?”

Erin turns and looks at me, her eyes cold and hard. “I love with all of me. I’m obsessive, dangerously so. But I’m protective. This is my answer. This is how far I’m going to go, and this is what I’m prepared to do. The answer, Bray, is however far I need and whatever it takes.”

I swallow hard, captivated by the alpha who has claimed part of my soul.

My alpha puts her boot on Delilah and pushes her slowly into the water. The beta sinks, unable to move. Her face below just an inch of water. The terror is something I have never seen on another person, but I can’t make myself move. This beta is the source of agony in my omega.

I’m not saving her. Whatever it takes. However far I have to go. They are worth it. My pack is worth it.

The unease vanishes and raw approval fills the void.

“Erin!” I purr. I grip her hand, holding it until my knuckles turn white. Together, a united front. She’s not alone, I’m the same.

She lifts her head and looks at me. “Go and look after our omega, Bray. I have something I need to do.”

I hesitate, but the glossy rage in her eyes, that purpose written all over her face, is not something I’m going to be able to change. And I don’t want to.

But it is a reminder of who she is. Of who we all are. She has her job, and I have mine.

I walk up the bank, my pace increasing until I’m jogging. It’s a slow jog with a limp, but I’m moving faster than a walk.

Martha and Jolene hand me a cup of hot cocoa when I get to the top and move me to towards the fire barrels they’ve set up. I stand close to them, shivering intensely, while I watch Doctor James work on Locke. The two women towel me dry.

“He’s going to be fine,” Finn says.

I glance at Finn.

“How do you know?” I ask in desperation.

“Because he’s strong. And we’re strong.”

Finn pulls my cup out of my hands and peels off my wet clothes before he wraps me in more blankets, and then wraps himself around me, burying his face in my shoulder.

“Finn, people will-”

“I don’t care, we’re pack. You and me, we’re the same, Bray. Just different sides. I love you. I’ve hated you, sure, but I think it's always because I was so fascinated with you.”

“He will be okay,” I whisper. “We’ll go back to the house in the mountains and-”

“Don’t talk nonsense, boy!” Alma snaps. “You’ll stay here until you’re all better!”

I blink at her.

“What are you saying?”

She blows out her cheeks. “I’m saying we had a talk, and we realised we were being, well, we were wrong about you, boy. Very wrong. You’re a good one and good for our Finn. We keep telling you this, Bray. We want you to stay. Suck it up, you’re stuck with us. We’re changing, give us a chance.”

Finn kisses the bare skin of my throat.

I don’t know if I can forgive the town, but I’m willing to try for Locke, for Erin, for Shane, and for Finn.

Locke coughs, and the doctor murmurs something. Shane looks at us and then leans down and picks up our omega. He glances at us, waiting for us to follow. I wave him on.

“Finn, they’re leaving. Come on, we have to go.”

Finn takes a step and collapses. There’s no warning. One minute, he’s standing, the next, he’s going down.

I manage to get my hand under his head before we both hit the ground.

“Help!” I shout.

The doctor is beside us in a second. “Exhaustion, hypothermia, pick him up and bring him to the hotel. Hurry!”

I pick up my beta and, naked as the day I was born, carry him down the street.

I glance around for Erin, but I don’t call out for her. I don’t want anyone to see what she’s doing.

The walk to the hotel takes forever, and I’ve got my teeth clenched so hard they’re threatening to break. My muscles are screaming, but Finn is safe. I move into the warm hotel air, leaning heavily against the wall, while Doctor James checks Finn and Locke. Betsy rushes to get a room ready.

And then we’re in a cherry-coloured room, laying them down on the beds. They are too pale, too still. Fear wraps itself around me, squeezing my throat closed. Holding me immobile.

“What do we do?” I whisper.

Shane grips my stiff fingers, the scent of pine easing the panic only a fraction.

“We do whatever needs to be done.”